To be upset regarding new home.

[2023NewStart1]

We’re in the process of moving into new home and I am shocked at the state of the walls. Not sure if we’ve been lucky before (3rd home move in 20 years) or if this is normal so posting here. The house looked beautiful and we thought it was ready to move in as it was exceptionally immaculate but now that the owners furniture and belongings have gone we realised how much it’s going to cost to paint. Every single room including the bathrooms has hundreds of nails dug into the walls! Even the decorator was shocked and said they seemed to have loved their pictures, we hung up a few pictures over the years and never nailed them in but used command picture strips. Only thing that was nailed in was a heavy mirror.

my mum was really shocked too, every single room needs to be painted and it’s going to cost a lot as we don’t know the names of paints used and trying to match up is going to be a nightmare. Mum very helpfully told me I should complain to the estate agent! I’m obviously not going to as the sale has happened and EA won’t really care.

any advice on what we can do or just anyone to sympathise? I haven’t told anyone in RL as it seems like a non problem but it’s really upsetting me as me we can’t move furniture in till decorating has been done. Every single room needs decorating now. It’s going to delay our move as all decorators are busy during this time

Outing doesn’t mean what you think it means.

This is your only thread under this name. So it can’t out any of your previous threads as there are none!

Just use magnolia and a bit of filler to get you through.

Pretty standard. My last house was lovely but even I was shocked at how it looked with everything removed. Dents in the carpets and marks on the walls where things has been hung. Admittedly we only had a couple of paintings but all houses look a bit shit when everything is gone.

I thought this was going to be damp, cracks or something else that is actually a problem.

I get why its a bit disappointing OP.

I recently bought my first home moved in to find the previous owners had taken very little care in moving, lots of scraped walls, lots of holes (they removed floating shelves that there's no way that they'd be able to use again) and holes in plaster. Sorted ruined the first home buying feeling.

I've now filled them in, painting all rooms to my liking and haven't given it a single thought since until reading this :) so I'm sure you'll get by it!

I moved into a house once to find they’d previously painted round the tv. My tv was not the same size and I wanted it in a different place anyway. Wasn’t even a wall mounted tv, it had been on a tv shelf and they’d been too lazy to unplug the tv and move it when they painted. So that was annoying! 😁

when we moved into our current house we found that the previous owners hadn't moved mirrors, pictures or even furniture in one room when they decorated. So when we moved in and they had taken their stuff out, there were large rectangles in most of the rooms which showed the different colour underneath. Not just slightly different but think terracotta and green, cream and red. And the wife was an interior decorator too. The mind boggles.

Similiar situation here. So many random nails in the walls of our new house. I wouldn't even mind if they were in decent places lol but they had a ridiculous amount of pictures up plus they ripped lots of things out of the wall like brackets. We were very considerate when leaving our property and filled and painted holes but I guess not everyone does that. It's annoying but we'd have been repainting anyway.

Maybe it looks like this. I can see why that would be outing 😁.

We just redecorate and hang pictures where the last nails were.

Crikey 🙄

Paint isn't that expensive. But, yes, if you're a princess and employ a decorator, there will be a cost.

Also, a lot of people would love their problems to consist of having to polyfilla and paint their new house. You need to have a word with yourself.

I feel you OP. I had similar when we got the keys to our new home, nearly 2 months ago now. Not as many nails as you but several things to be polyfillered and the old, stained magnolia living/dining room was repainted immediately as it looked disgusting with all the furniture removed. The hallway/landing are next, (followed by the the kitchen, but waiting for Spring and lighter, longer days. We're having to live with it for now and consoling myself with the fact come March, I will have a lovely new front door and redecorated hallway and the place will feel so different.

surely you planned to decorate anyway, I can't imagine moving into a house which doesn't need painting

Funny how people have different expectations of moving. I have moved quite a few times during the years and learned you always need do do a full house clean from top to bottom, no matter how well maintained the house was as you never notice your own dirt but you notice other people’s. Also you always need to fill holes and knocks and redecorate every single room. Not necessarily in one go but you are immensely lucky if you find a property that is ready to move into. Our weirdest one was a couple who had a male torso bust on their wall. They also turned out to be prolific smokers (we hadn’t noticed any smell) so when we moved in we had a sticky tar yellow outline of the bust! Paint came out within days of moving in!!

If they spent the weeks between exchange and completion hammering nails in then you might have a case for complaint, but otherwise, tough!

Review the rightmove photos and see if the nails match pictures, and you'd just under estimated how many there were.

I've never moved anywhere which didn't need fully decorating. Because even if it's pristine (which almost none are) it's very unlikely to be to your taste. And admittedly we prefer to buy when the layout and location are great, knowing we'll need to do work and get it to our preferred spec.
Polyfilla, sandpaper and decent paint are your friends. I recommend tikurilla, which is coloured to your preference at a good paint shop. It's expensive but when it works out as definitely 2 coats (whereas I've needed 3 or even 4 of cheaper ones like dulux) the cost is the same as gallons of others. Not to blow my own trumpet but we hired a decorator to do 1 tricky room here, and I certainly did a better job than he had. And he used dulux which has marked in places already and i hate. Filling and sanding, then paint ceiling and woodwork first, then walls is my work plan. We totally renovated this house, it was truly shocking. And another I bought a long time ago, if you sprayed or wiped the walls you could watch dirty water run down
I also suggest next time you view houses you really look and buy accordingly - that way if you know its a lot you can try to use it to reduce price a bit. But you really are expecting the earth if you want to move and not decorate. Buy a new build next time.

It's only expensive if you can't be bothered to do it yourself - painting after moving in is totally normal I would have thought!

We are planning to tackle the final job on our house that was recommended in the survey when we bought. We've been here 22 years....
OP, I see your nails and raise you bathroom tiles fixed over wallpaper.

every piece of mail that is incorrectly delivered - id punch a hole in it before forwarding.....

I wouldn't really - id stick a nail through it and then send it on

I can’t believe you won’t move in, how very odd. Just move in and then move your furniture as appropriate and go room to room, it’s not normally a big deal. Is there a back story as to why you can’t do it yourselves and need decorators?

This and our walls needed plastered as opposed to just small holes filled and painted. Every. Single. Room and we moved in 3 weeks before Christmas and lived with it, still are, 2 years on we're still nowhere near finished with improvements. But it's not the end of the world.

Wow. We had no kitchen or bathroom for 6 months when we moved in. No central heating or double glazing. Some holes in the walls are eating you up and you have a "decorator". You sound like you wouldn't have lasted an hour in our house!

I feel your pain!!

Our vendors here had loads of pictures everywhere when we viewed. We assumed they would have removed the nails/hooks but we moved in to nails all over the place. We decorated gradually and we were still finding odd nails years later!

Where will you live then whilst you wait for decorators to come and do your whole house? I’ve never heard the like. You must be proper loaded. Good for you though, but what a waste of money

[merail] I keep thinking about trying the spray method but see lots of people saying it's not a skill the average DIYer can pick up to a good standard. Is getting it even tricky? That and the meticulous sheet and taping? [/merail]